Catch of the Day

Everyday, they will come like this:

or    

even like this,

bringing with them, “gifts” from the sea. Well, they actually come to sell their catch, and they’re normally small catches, such as:

This all happens at the Floating Eateries, along Jalan Buli Sim Sim (my son asked who bullied Sim Sim, but that’s another story), Sandakan. One will see cars parked along the road, as the various “lorongs” (lanes) that lead into the eateries are accessible only by foot.  The eateries are always at the very end, and you will walk pass many stilt houses, on the way in. The one we went to was in Lorong 8, and when we got there at around 1 pm, we hit the lunch crowd as well.

Whenever a fisherman unload his catch, there will always be a crowd waiting to see what is available. There was one group of men who were obviously waiting for some specific fish or some other seafood, as they were always the first ones up from the table, to the jetty area, and they did this at least 6 times, when we were there. They were still waiting when we left, which led me to wonder how exotic or elusive the particular seafood they were seeking!

However, one is not able to purchase outright from these fishermen, as there is already an understanding between the fishermen and the owner of the eatery ( I wouldn’t call it a restaurant), that is exclusive. So you end up buying from the owner, and I notice that a lot of patrons select their seafood, and have the eatery cook for them, there and then. It’s a rarity to be able to enjoy seafood this way. We were told the seafood would have been caught just a couple of hours before being brought in for sale. For most of these small time fishermen, it would have been a couple of hours’ work in the morning. Most, if not all of them are of filipino descent, and apparently making RM30 is good enough for the day.

You simply can’t beat the freshness of the seafood here. There was only three of us for lunch, as the son was down with indigestion or some mild food poisoning, so opted to skip lunch to rest his stomach. We ordered the seafood noodles, and steamed prawns with chinese wine.

Yes, both dishes were simply delectable, the prawns were so “sweet” and juicy, and its flavour further enhanced by the chinese wine. I had most of the prawns as hubby is very averse to high cholesterol foods, and with one child already down with stomach upset, we decided not to give too much prawns to our daughter. Best to play safe when travelling, especially where kids are concerned.

I decided to NOT know about calories nor cholesterol in our two days in Sandakan.

And this was the entrance to the eatery:

Other Sandakan food posts coming up!